Nintendo's lack of new games blamed on next platform
Anticipated titles for 3DS will be continually released.
Nintendo has blamed the lack of strong first-party titles for its systems on preparation for its next platform.
At its half year Financial Results Briefing, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata acknowledged the lack of new software.
"Strong momentum is very important for game platform businesses and a strong software line-up to vitalize a platform is necessary to maintain this momentum," said Iwata. "In the first half of this year, however, we could not make the continuing sales of the first-party software released last year as we had planned, nor, in the course of preparation of the next platform, could we release new key titles for the existing platform in a timely fashion due to completion delays until the latter half of this year."
He added: "After the upcoming November, however, anticipated titles for Nintendo 3DS will be continually released, which we hope will bring a big boost in the year-end sales season. We would like to thereby fulfill our responsibility to ensure bright prospects for this platform toward the next fiscal year and beyond."
VideoGamer.com Analysis
Nintendo will release Super Mario 3D Land and Zelda: Skyward Sword on November 18, followed by Mario Kart 7 on December 2. That's as strong a line-up this winter as any other platform holder.
User Comments
Woffls
This is in relation to the latter, in that they are putting a lot of development resources from internal studios like EAD, and definitely 2nd parties like Retro, into Wii U launch titles. Personally I don't think great 1st party titles are a pre-requisite for a successful console launch, but this isn't the time where Nintendo try and prove that. Get a big franchise out there for launch, and they're already a few million units and a decent amount of mind-share ahead of where they otherwise would be.